


Conversations Waiting to Happen

by jellojello



Category: Persona 5
Genre: Alternate Universe - No Metaverse (Persona 5), F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Rated this Teen and Up because of a swear? I’m not quite sure how rating works yet.
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-01
Updated: 2021-03-01
Packaged: 2021-03-13 10:01:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,242
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29774490
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jellojello/pseuds/jellojello
Summary: Takuto knew he fucked up. He didn’t mean too, but in hindsight he should’ve known how his actions would’ve hurt her. All the good intentions in the world don’t mean much when the outcome still ends up being what it is.
Relationships: Maruki Takuto/Rumi
Comments: 2
Kudos: 5





	Conversations Waiting to Happen

Takuto knew he fucked up. He didn’t mean too, but in hindsight he should’ve known how his actions would’ve hurt her. All the good intentions in the world don’t mean much when the outcome still ends up being what it is.

What happened to her caused a rift in their relationship. She was still early on in her own path to recovery, and Takuto himself was spiraling further and further into a hole of blaming himself for what happened. He often found himself thinking about what he could’ve done to prevent what happened, going over the events in his mind over and over and criticizing himself every little thing he hadn’t done. 

At times he wonders if he should just go. The look of sadness he sees in her eyes whenever she looks at him pains him, and he can’t help but feel as though she would be better off without him there. The thoughts shove their way into his mind about how he’s probably just a painful reminder of what happened to her on that day, but no matter how many times he tells himself that leaving is the best thing he could do for her, he still can’t bring himself to actually go through with it.

So, he throws himself into his research. If he can’t help her as a fiancé, then he’ll devote himself to finding another way to be useful to her. He spends all day and night in his office, researching and taking notes on any and every possible lead to helping her regain her happiness. He goes to bed late at night, much later than Rumi does, and has abandoned any sort of consistent eating schedule. Sometimes he feels his own body slowly rotting away, but he pushes through it. All that matters is finding a way to ease the growing sadness he sees in her during the short moments of time they get to spend together.

This is how their life was for about a month or two. Sometimes Rumi would meekly open crack open the door to invite him to watch a movie with her, but more often than not he’d be so absorbed into his own work to even notice. He’s disappointed that he hadn’t noticed her unhappiness building up sooner.

It was around four in the morning when Takuto finally got to a stopping point for the night. He sighs, looking away from the clock on his desk and going over his notes one last time before heading to bed. He had managed to come across an obscure form of trauma treatment originating from somewhere in Europe, and while it seems promising, information regarding it is hard to come by and is predominantly in English. He’s managed to contact a friend from college to help with the translations, but it’s taking up more time than he’d like.

He pinches the bridge of his nose, frustrated with how far away he is from his goal.

Eventually he gets himself up from his desk chair, and into the kitchen to get himself something to eat. He thinks he remembers eating something this morning but… he’s not certain about that. Regardless, he can’t ignore the hunger in his stomach for much longer. He checks the fridge for the leftovers of whatever Rumi had made for dinner that day. Even though they never eat together anymore, she always makes enough for two when she cooks. Takuto appreciates the thought behind it, but he wishes that she wouldn’t go through the effort of doing so and just focus on herself. He eats half of what’s left, and nearly puts it back when he’s done.

He makes his way to their bedroom. and he freezes in shock when he opens the door to see Rumi aware.

She’s sitting up, staring directly at him with wide eyes. Her entire body seems to be shaking, and he can see her gripping at the sheets as if her life depended on it.

“Oh— You’re uh— you’re still awake?”

She opens her mouth to respond, but no words seem to come out. 

“Is um— is everything okay? Do you need anything?”

It takes her a minute to respond, and he can barely hear her when she finally does.

“I… had a nightmare. Well— No, yeah. It was a nightmare,” she murmurs, uncertainty clinging to every word she managed to get out.

“Ah. Do you want me to get you the sleeping medication and make you some tea?”

She shakes her head. “No, it’s fine. Don’t worry about it.”

Takuto can tell that she’s not fine. He gives a small nod regardless, and goes to lay down on his side of the bed. They lay there together for a while. Neither of them fall asleep, so they stay in silence for what feels like an eternity. In the end, it’s Rumi who finally ends up speaking up.

“Takuto.”

“Y— Yes?”

“You know you can leave me if you really want to, right?”

The question causes him to freeze. Part of him takes the question as confirmation of all the doubts he had been having about his role in the relationship, but the other part of him felt deeply confused. Why would he ever want to leave her? Rumi is all that matters to him, so why would he ever feel the desire to be apart from her?

It takes him a while to think of how to respond.

“Is… Is that what you want?”

“No.”

“That’s— That’s good. I don’t want that either.”

“Oh.”

Takuto waits for a follow-up that never comes. 

“Um, why is it that you ask…?” He says, breaking the silence that had begun to once again build up between the two of them.

He hears Rumi sigh, before reluctantly giving her response.

“I just— It feels like you go out of your way to avoid spending time with me. I know your research is really important to you but… Takuto, we don’t even eat together anymore. You spend all your time locked away in your office and whenever I try to get you to come out and to something with me you always just seem so… reluctant. What else am I supposed to think other than that you want to break up?”

Takuto opens his mouth to reply, but no words come to mind. What does he even say to that? He’s doing all of this for her so why would she ever think that he—

His thoughts are interrupted by the feeling of Rumi rolling over to face his back. Quivering arms initially reach to wrap around him, but retreat back to lightly grip onto his shirt instead.

“I’m sorry, I know it’s selfish I just… miss you.”

Takuto finally snaps out of his spiral of self deprecation and doubt. 

“No— No, don’t apologize. You aren’t being selfish. You never did anything wrong,” he says, before rolling over himself to hold her up against his chest.

“I’m sorry, I thought I was doing what was best but… you’re right. I’m sorry.” He struggles just to get the words out, guilt once again starting to consume his entire being.

They lay together peacefully for a moment. He can still feel Rumi shaking in his arms, gently running his fingers through her hair to comfort her through barely audible sobs.

“...Takuto?”

“Yes?”

“Please— Please stay. Don’t leave.”

“I won’t. I’ll always be here, for as long as you’ll have me.”

**Author's Note:**

> This is the second fanfic I’ve ever written and I’m not super confident in it, but I want to start posting my work. I wrote this off a vague concept I had in my head so it probably seems kind of weird. I would still love to get feedback on it so I can improve for anything I do going forward. :^)
> 
> I’m also still trying to figure out how AO3 works, so forgive me if anything is wrong.


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